Feijoada: Tips on How to Prepare the Brazilian Dish Without the Pressure Pot
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Feijoada is a very traditional Brazilian dish made of black beans, meat and spices. It is a very nutritious and healthy dish with a delicious taste.
The pressure pot
There are lots of people living abroad who miss Brazilian food and want to cook it but it`s way too hard without the special pot called panela de pressão, which I would translate to pressure pot. This pot is generally very hard to find in other countries and if you find it, the very first time that you see one of those things in your life you won`t imagine how dangerous it can be and what is more you are not even able to open or close it. There is a whole special system of locking and unlocking it and it has gas valves and pressure valves. The pressure pot is very important to make black beans, as they are so hard that you would take an entire day in the kitchen to cook them. This special pot works with pressure; the hotter it gets the more pressure is in it, which makes the beans cook faster. All this pressure inside the pot is trying to get out, that`s why the pot has a special lock, but if you open it during the cooking process or if you remove the pressure valve, it can explode which is quite dangerous. You would have a hard time finding this pot and then you would need to take a course to learn how to use it, in order to finally be able to cook the dish. That all sounds too complicated, but there is a tip to help you to do that in a much easier and faster way.
How to cook it without the pot
Let`s just not use the pot at all, we don`t really need it. But here is a very important detail about cooking it without the pressure pot that you have to consider. The beans are extremely hard, that`s why Brazilians, even when using the special pot, let them sit overnight in a pot of water, to make them softer. So before going to bed you will have to decide if you want to cook feijoada for lunch tomorrow. Here is the big secret: bicarbonate baking soda will accelerate the cooking process. Just use a teaspoon of bicarbonate baking soda in powder form, mix it into the water and let it sit between 30 minutes and an hour.
Wash the beans and add them to a normal pot with some new water. The water level has to be several centimeters higher than the beans. Add some spices and meat such as cubes of steak, sliced sausages and bacon, add some salt and then let it cook. It`s going to take just as long as smoking ribs: about 5 to 6 hours.
Serve it and enjoy!
Once you`re done, serve it and eat it with side dishes like rice or potatoes and vegetables but it goes well with almost everything. Here’s a health tip for those of you that are conscious about healthy eating. During the meal, drink a glass of orange juice or eat an orange for dessert, because oranges help your body break the fat you get from the bacon or other meat. That is what Brazilians do to eat delicious food and be healthy at the same time.
I hope this Hub helped you out, enjoy your Feijoada!